Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)

What is the evidence of non-compliance? In ten years, we have moved from one inspector for every 150,000 workers to one inspector for every 20,000. That represents seven times more inspection per head of the workforce. This is an extraordinary increase in inspection. Does the Minister of State have any hard evidence of much more abuse? We have had some extraordinary high-profile abuse cases, but it seems that those are issues of poor detection rather than a shortage of inspectors. Is this move — a predictable decision to create a new office with more staff — the way to get to grips with the problem? I would like to see some evidence to underpin this move.

We will not increase compliance burdens, about which the Department is also concerned. We will have intelligent systems for identifying wrongdoing rather than having many people operating systems that are not up to best practice.

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